Zoya Ziv

I am in love with this polish.

I love it enough, I photographed it on day 3 with tip wear and still have to share it.

Its the same foil/metallic awesome as Zoya Hazel but in gold. Its like liquid joy in a bottle. Its a great gold, not too yellow and not too silver/gray.

Grab it on Zoya.com or your favorite retailer (but since its not a new color, wait for a sale). And thanks to the awesomeness of this polish, I have a list of Zoya foils to buy on the next sale for myself. What is your favorite Zoya foil? I have heard Trixie is a must have, so its top of my list.

Essie Sleek Stick UV cured Nail Appliques

So I found these at my local DollarTree and decided to give them a try.

I have tried vinyl nail appliques in the past and have had mixed results with them. I applied mine similarly to Jamberry (if you have heard of them before). I didn't actually heat the wraps with a rice pack to seal on, but I did use heat and pressure to attach them to my nails. I will report back on removal. I have had really bad removal with Jamberry (losing the top layer of my nails leading to breakage for MONTHS) and its hard to want to use the rest of the wraps I own already. Since these were only $1, and I honestly couldn't tell what they would be like inside the package, I decided to give them a shot. I actually thought they would be more like sheets of nail polish like a different brand, but they are not.

Don't Cheetah on Me is a textured sticker/applique. So the wrap felt very similar to Jamberry. I trimmed off a large amount of the length of the wrap with a nail scissors, and then filed off the end with the included file. I decided to go ahead and compare it to a tried true nail polish combo, so its every other nail with OPI's Color of Minnie (a lovely blue flashing red).

(Yes the polish is already chipped, its because my nail has literally chipped up in layers. It is sad. Cry with me).

I wore these wraps and polish for 5 days. The ends actually did as well or BETTER than Jamberry. Yes, color me surprised. However, and this is a BIG however. I carefully and slowly removed these with oil (per the box insert) and I literally have loose strings of nail peeling off from about halfway up the nail toward the tip. I will be doing a nail treatment with Orly Nailtrition to grow out the sad peelies. Hopefully it grows out before a Halloween witchy party a friend is throwing.

Unrelated to nails, but look my Obedient plant BLOOMS! Its been blooming for a couple of weeks now, but it finally turned cooler so its not covered in bees. When it is covered in bees there are little black fuzzy butts sticking out the purple flowers. Its amusing but not as pretty as the purple flowers.

Zoya Oswin - fan girls unite!

I love Dr. Who. As any good fan girl would, I snatched up Oswin as soon as she was out.

To be honest, not my fave. I think it looks a little flat for a Pixie dust. I did photos with a thin coat of top coat to make it more sparkly. And, it was harder to remove than the 'traditional' pixie because of the large glitters in there. But the geek chic in me means, I will wear it again.

Because.

The Doctor: Oswin, I am so sorry. But you are a Dalek. The milk, Oswin. The milk and the eggs for the soufflé. Where—where—did it all come from?
Oswin: Eggs...
The Doctor: It wasn't real. It was never real.
Oswin: Eggs... ter... min... ate. Exterminate...

Zoya Dream

One upon a time I pained my nails all the time. Then I stopped because I don't have time to take good photos for a blog. But that is silly because  every once in a while a girl just has to share pretty nails. Even when she uses a laptop webcam and forgets to crop the crap. Look my 4 year old's clothes for tomorrow!

The polish is actually darker than this IRL - very much a royal blue color. And the tiny scattered holo in there is just breath taking. What can I say I love Zoya polishes.

This color is from the winter/holiday 2013 collection. Its still available on Zoya.com and can be found elsewhere as well. Zoya's retail for $9, but I always buy during promos or a sale, so I know I paid less.

OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys

Remember when I used to blog? School is turning out to be stressful, so blogging (and painting my nails) is back!  By Back I mean: "hey I took these photos on my ipad' and 'ugh i need a break from anatomy, lets paint nails.' This sort of thing is SURE to bring all the readers in.

OPI Suzi loves Cowboys is a dark brown cream. I would say its a super dark chocolate brown, but I held my hands up to some 85% cocoa chocolate it it looked light. So maybe it is just 'Hershey's special dark' chocolate brown. I can't tell as I am a chocolate snob - or at least I try to be.

This polish from the OPI Texas collection that came out in spring 2011. Yes SPRING. This is not a spring color. It is however a great fall color. Even though I already chipped mine and it has been less than 24 hours. Ah the downside of dark colors.

I thought the formula was great. Two coats had some light patches on the nail, but they weren't too bad IRL. I can see them a LOT in the photos though.

Influenster Spring Fever Vox Box! and imPRESS nails

This is my second Vox Box form Influenster. Its a neat program that sends out samples of full size products for bloggers to try out and share with the internet world.

 Sorry for the crappy photo, my camera's size setting was set at a smaller scale than I thought. I wasn't able to crop the crap

In the box was:

1. Secret Outlast Clear Gel Antiperspirant/Deodorant - supposed to be good for 48 hours!
2. NYC New York Color Applelicious Blossy Lip Balm - delivers color, shine and moisture 
3. Tastykake Kandy Bad Kakes - mine was made with Reese's peanut butter, but there is also Smores and Peppermint flavors
4.  OSiS Dust It - mattifying powder that adds root lift, texture and control
5. Broadway Nails imPRESS Press-On Manicure - press on nails that supposedly lasts up to a week

What did I think?
I will be reviewing the imPRESS press on nails. So being a nail gal, I was sort of excited by these. There are cute (a water marble look), they are easy and fast. My nails have been growing out some. They are at the point where I am pretty proud of them. But I had an unfortunate incident and tore the nail on my middle finger. Perfect time to try press on nails, right? Sure.

 So these weren't too bad to put on. I had some issues finding ones htat fit really well. My pointer fingers have pretty flat nail beds, so I had issues finding a nail that would fit it. Also, I guess my middle finger nail is either wide, or has a really short nail bed. That one felt SO long.

You can see the edges of my nails under the pointer finger, but the white-ish edge of the middle finger is just fuzz that caught on the excess glue. The one was far longer than the edge of my finger, unlike the others. My current nails are about end of my fingertips which are good for typing and not scratching people accidentally. Actually my smaller nails, like my pinky, my nail almost showed at the end of the press on.

And worse. When I took them off they started tearing at my nails. Like pulling up a layer at the end and peeling it off. :(  I have two nails I claim as casualties to the press-on glue pulling up the ends. To be fair, they stuck on like CRAZY. If i was willing to wear them for a week or so until they came off on their own, they might have come off easier.

So easy and fast, yes. Thick acrylic tips, yes. Wear them again. Never.

If your nails are longer than mine, or you don't often have issues with peeling tearing nails, you can check out the fun colors and prints here. http://impressmanicure.com/

Maybelline Sandstrom and Hard Candy Black Tie Optional

Its summer! My laptop is fixed!

The kids and I have no been adjusting so well to a rainy beginning of summer (read TICKS!!! ewwww, and lots of messes, and no time for school), so I have had a little drugstore retail therapy this week. I got a few Maybelline limited edition polishes and knocked off a lemming with Hard Candy Black Tie Optional.

Maybelline Sandstorm is a light tan/beige cream. The first coat was pretty streaky, but the second coat left me with a perfect background for glitter. What? you don't look at neutral shades as great backgrounds for glitter? You poor dears.

Enter my lemming. To be fair my lemming was a black and white glitter top coat. I have decided I am not that into indie polishes in general. The ones I have I really like, but I just like walking into a store and walking out with polish. Its more exciting. I missed the China Glaze black and white glitter a few months ago, and HC Black Tie Optional has been sold out at most of the stores I have been to until Thursday afternoon. In a stressful store trip to buy paper towels for mess cleaning and Oreos for 'positive behavior reinforcement' I went down the nail polish aisle. And it was there. Actually they had more than one of every color in the display. But, I only walked away with black tie optional. *pat on the back*

It went on like a dream. I only needed one coat for this coverage. My other hand I applied the top coat a little thicker and I didn't like it as much.

I love this manicure! Its fun and still classy. I will totally wear this again. It chipped on the second day, but I was helping someone move in, so that manicure got a workout. (And hey no nails chipped so wohoo!)

Maybelline limited edition polishes run for $3 at Walmart.  The Hard Candy polishes were all $4. I buy all my polishes myself. With cash too, like a responsible budget following person. Or like someone not leaving a paper trail. You decide.